My main use case for CircleCI involves different CI capabilities, mostly building containers and general applications. I use CircleCI for building containers and applications, specifically for our GoLang application. We have an ECS application written in GoLang which runs scans against the infrastructure. Regardless, it is completely built and managed. The configs are also stored in Bitbucket, and CircleCI is connected to it, running all the builds, processes, and deployment in the end to the ECS.
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Automated container builds have accelerated our Go deployments and simplified AWS workflows
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The best features CircleCI offers are probably the modules, which have great extendability. I use the modules or extendability in CircleCI primarily for classic pushes to AWS, and those include registry sign-ons and other cases.
CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to build quicker and do things quicker. It does the job really well. These extensions are called Workflows. I have used some AWS Workflows, and there are multiple others.
CircleCI helps you build and do things quicker. It is difficult to say if there were specific improvements, but there is general reliability and probably improvements overall.
What needs improvement?
I have no idea how CircleCI can be improved. I am a user, not a developer of CI tools. I do not really have anything to add about the needed improvements, even small things that could make my experience better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using CircleCI for around a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
CircleCI is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
CircleCI's scalability is great. I have never had any problems with it.
How are customer service and support?
I did not deal with CircleCI's customer support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used multiple solutions. The very first one was GitLab, but it was just an experiment, because there are quite a few limitations that we had with GitLab, so we had to switch.
What was our ROI?
I cannot say if I have seen a return on investment. It is very difficult to tell.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that I only used CircleCI on the free tier.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing CircleCI, I evaluated other options, specifically Jenkins.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using CircleCI is to read more documentation. The documentation is really good. I would rate this review an 8.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Automated pipelines have accelerated deployments and dashboards now reveal clear pricing and security gaps
What is our primary use case?
The main use case for CircleCI is to have build pipelines and to execute the pipelines, tests, and deployments while using it to get results and obtain a dashboard.
For a specific example of how I use CircleCI for deployments in my projects, I utilize it for continuous integration and automation to have the builds. I create YAML pipelines with it, and we first have some steps such as installing Node if it is a front-end build or installing the dependencies. After that, I build the project. Following the build, I deploy it on AWS Elastic Container Service of the image. After the image is deployed, I deploy that image on the running EC2, either in EC2 or within the S3 bucket. Then, the environment is ready, and I run the tests against that environment.
Additionally, I use CircleCI for insights and dashboards, doing some dashboarding and monitoring the results, duration, and how the runs have been, including the output and generation of reports or sending notifications to email addresses. I also connect it with Azure DevOps and GitHub.
What is most valuable?
I think the best features CircleCI offers are continuous integration and deployment, automation, parallel testing, and infrastructure as code, enabling the use of Terraform and Docker scripts, which it can run. It also provides security and compliance through security scans, linting, and compliance checks. These are key features that it offers.
Among those features, I find the most valuable in my day-to-day work the automation aspect, as we have a large product team with many developers who continuously create branches and push code, necessitating automation that builds the pipeline and the branches automatically while giving faster feedback. There is speed, flexibility, and intelligent pipeline orchestration possible with CircleCI, which we appreciate. Additionally, we have hooks and can run tasks on commit or push, which allows executions based on those events, and the self-hosted runners to run jobs on our infrastructure or use provided agents by CircleCI itself are also beneficial.
CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by bringing in faster deployments, which means we can release faster, receive quicker feedback, and enhance collaboration and communication across the entire team. We benefit from really good dashboards, build performance analytics, and optimization of resources, which allows for multiple containers or virtual machines, significantly reducing build time. Additionally, the security and vulnerability scanning provided out of the box helps tremendously, as we just need to push the code and everything is managed by our CircleCI YAML scripts.
What needs improvement?
I think CircleCI can improve in terms of pricing and needs to bring more unique selling points to stay competitive as there are many other cloud solutions such as GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps that offer similar execution and deployment services.
I believe CircleCI should leverage the growing trend of AI by offering an out-of-the-box AI-driven dynamic YAML file creation feature using natural language processing. Instead of having users define pipelines manually, users could simply use natural language to define their needs and let the AI generate the YAML configuration automatically. Implementing a multi-agent architecture could also enhance usability.
I rated CircleCI six out of ten because I think they need more transparency in pricing, as there are instances of unclear network data transfer and storage costs related to caching and workspaces. Additionally, there are sporadic platform security incidents that need addressing, and pipelines require good protection. Secret rotation should also be prioritized. There are occasionally long-running workflows that can be difficult to debug, and improvements could be made in job startup times and cache management.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using CircleCI for the last five years.
How was the initial setup?
The most challenging aspect during the initial setup of CircleCI in my organization was understanding how to create and implement our pipelines effectively. Although there is good documentation, determining the importance of various components for building and deploying from CircleCI to our AWS infrastructure to achieve faster deployments and feedback was initially not straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
I really appreciate the good speed, which is faster and definitely the most important feature for me.
To ensure that security and compliance requirements are met while using CircleCI, we utilize restricted contexts for secrets along with short-lived credentials. We follow some regulatory guidelines, ensuring that every job runs in an isolated environment, either in a Docker container or a virtual machine. Furthermore, we maintain secret rotation and use secure API tokens while implementing appropriate access controls.
I rate this product six out of ten.
Fast, User-Friendly, but Keep an Eye on Costs
What do you like best about the product?
I find CircleCI easy to use and integrate. The servers are pretty fast, which is a major plus. The initial setup was simple, and it just works.
What do you dislike about the product?
It may be not that cheap if your compilation is not optimized enough.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use CircleCI for compiling, testing, and deploying applications on the server. It's easy to use and integrates well, with faster servers than GitHub Actions.
Intuitive, Easy, and Effective for CI/CD
What do you like best about the product?
I like that CircleCI is easy to use, easy to understand, and I can get to what I need clearly. It is intuitive, with icons and colors that offer a good user experience to achieve what the user wants to do. The initial setup was quite simple, and I have been able to do it alone several times.
What do you dislike about the product?
Everything perfect, no problem
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use CircleCI to automate CI/CD processes. It is easy to use, understand, and intuitive, offering a good experience with icons and colors that make it easy to access what I need.
Automated deployments have streamlined cloud releases but configuration orbs still need simplification
What is our primary use case?
CircleCI is used primarily as the pipeline for application deployment. When a pull request is created in GitHub, it triggers a CircleCI pipeline because of the GitHub integration. During the CircleCI pipeline, the application goes through building and deployment to the appropriate destination, which can be a Lambda or AKS microservices.
What is most valuable?
CircleCI's GitHub integration is the best feature offered. The GitHub integration is most valuable because of its ease of use, as it only requires integration with the GitHub repository and then creating the pipeline as a YAML file within the repository code.
CircleCI has positively impacted the organization, as it has been used for many years and serves as the main source for application deployment. Every deployment is conducted through CircleCI, and this is what keeps the company functioning.
What needs improvement?
CircleCI's Orbs are not as easy to use as they could be. If CircleCI implemented a function approach similar to GitHub Actions, it would be significantly better.
CircleCI could be improved if it could function without Orbs. Instead of Orbs, using a function approach like GitHub Actions would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
CircleCI has been used for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
CircleCI is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
CircleCI's scalability is easier to manage, but it comes at a high cost.
How are customer service and support?
A customer support ticket has never been opened.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
This company already had CircleCI running for several years before starting at this position.
How was the initial setup?
CircleCI was purchased through the AWS Marketplace.
What about the implementation team?
The company does not have a business relationship with this vendor beyond being a customer.
What was our ROI?
A return on investment with CircleCI has not been observed, and no relevant metrics such as time saved or fewer employees needed can be shared.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is not much experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because that is managed by the legal team.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Other options were not evaluated before choosing CircleCI, but after choosing CircleCI, GitHub Actions and Harness are already being evaluated.
What other advice do I have?
For others looking into using CircleCI, study thoroughly about CircleCI's Orbs because they are quite complicated. The overall review rating for CircleCI is 6 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Very very good tool easy to login from github
What do you like best about the product?
Very very good tool easy to login from github
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing as of now. Looking forward for more
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Very very good tool easy to login from github. But as of now no problem
CircleCI with GitHub offers powerful CI/CD automation with excellent Git integration
What do you like best about the product?
CircleCI integrates seamlessly with GitHub, making it easy to trigger builds on commits and pull requests. It offers a highly configurable pipeline setup using YAML, supports Docker natively, and allows for parallel job execution to speed up testing. The free tier is generous enough for small to mid-size projects, and built-in caching and performance dashboards help optimize build times and monitor efficiency.
What do you dislike about the product?
However, the learning curve can be steep for those new to CI/CD or YAML configuration. Resource limits in the free plan can be restrictive for larger teams or complex workflows. Job startup times can occasionally be slow, the UI sometimes lags under load, and advanced features like Docker layer caching are locked behind paid tiers.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Automatically triggers builds on every push or pull request.
Solid Tool for easy CI
What do you like best about the product?
Integrations are great. Configuration was easy and has a solid number of features. We use this in our CI for a handful of apps and it's very easy to use.
What do you dislike about the product?
Wish it had better integrations for mobile apps (android / iOS) alternatives have easy integrations into those developer platforms to pull certificates etc.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Not running deploys locally. Centralization of environment variables
my experience using CircleCI is the best
What do you like best about the product?
what i like the best about CicleCI is its speed and flexibility, and automation of testing and user friendly interface. and easy to implement and its easy to approach the customer support
What do you dislike about the product?
i think one of the downsideof circleCI is the complex of configuration for newbie or begginners, especially with advance feature
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
one of the problem that circleCI solve is manual, thanks to CircleCI we now automate on testing our software and automate fo find error, so now we can fix it early, its reduce our time on working, and improve the team productivity
It is a great platform to coordinate your CI/CD
What do you like best about the product?
It is really easy to integrate with GitHub and Gitlab. On the other hand I really like that my team can easily take advantage of the platform to understand the problems that may occur with the pipelines, is really easy to identify the problem by checking logs and identify the step that is failing.
What do you dislike about the product?
The pricing page is a little bit confusing for me. But maybe this is just me because I'm not using this section very regularly, however when i enter I always forgot how to do the report I need and the UI is not very intuitive
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have the CI/CD pipelines inside CircleCI for the 2 main products in the company. A mobile application and the backend API that is used by all the clients inside our system. The benefit of having the pipelines here is that engineers can easily understand problems with deployments without the help from the DevOps team. They can easily understand the issues and fixing by themselves most of the cases
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